To enable two I section steel girders to be structurally interconnected on site, and without the need for the inconvenience of on-site drilling and welding, it has been known for decades to provide a clamp location plate which is positioned in an interposed manner between confronting surfaces of the two girders. The location plate has length and breadth dimensions greater than the respective widths of the two beam flanges such that the four corner regions of the plate lie exposed when the central region of the plate is sandwiched between said confronting surfaces. The corner regions typically are pre-drilled such that they can each locate a clamping device that extends through a respective corner hole to engage with surfaces of the flanges and effect a structural interconnection therebetween.
Although the interposed location plate enables a strong structural interconnection to be achieved, it suffers two disadvantages. One is that it does not allow the two interconnected members to be positioned in direct contact with one another, and thus may undesirably add to the space envelope of a girder assembly. The other disadvantage is that the location plate needs to be drilled with the four holes at positions specifically suitable for enabling the plate to be used with girders of a particular size. Thus in general a plurality of differently sized plates may be required, and on-site adjustment is not facilitated.
In an attempt to enable two girders to be assembled in a flush fit manner, i.e. to avoid the need for two girders to be separated by an interposed location plate, and to facilitate on-site adjustments, it has been proposed to provide a beam fixing device comprising four clamping plates and four threaded fasteners.